Köln

/[kœln]/ name

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#704

in German word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

Köln is aGermanname. It means: Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, viertgrößte Stadt Deutschlands, gelegen am Rhein Pronounced [kœln]. It ranks #704 in German word frequency. Often confused with kot and kom.

Key facts for Köln
PropertyValue
HeadwordKöln
LanguageGerman
Part of speechName
IPA[kœln]
Letters4
Frequency rank#704
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of Köln in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for Köln is 4 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [kœln]. Corpus data places it at rank #704 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, viertgrößte Stadt Deutschlands, gelegen am Rhein".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for Köln, with forms such as "kköln", "klön", and "kölln". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "kot", "kom", "Kor", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is Köln, spelled K-Ö-L-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, viertgrößte Stadt Deutschlands, gelegen am Rhein

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: kköln,klön,kölln,kölnn,könl,ökln

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Köln

Misspelling Variants of "Köln"

kköln5klön4kölln5kölnn5könl4ökln4
Misspelling Variants of "Köln"

Frequency rank: #704 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Köln"?
"Köln" is spelled K-Ö-L-N. The IPA pronunciation is [kœln].
What does "Köln" mean?
As a name, "Köln" means: Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, viertgrößte Stadt Deutschlands, gelegen am Rhein
What words are commonly confused with "Köln"?
"Köln" is commonly confused with "kot", "kom", "Kor". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "Köln"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Köln" is [kœln]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Köln" come from?
"Köln" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter K in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.